I lay upside down. My body was on the bed and my head dangling down above the floor.

On the small table next to my bed was a pouch filled with cash. Though Mother Ningguang did seem curious about why I asked for cash instead of putting the money in my credit card, on the other end she didn't ask any questions.

Now the real question is, what on hell should I buy? I could buy the advanced version of Transfiguration, but honestly, I kinda want something new.

So, I should avoid things from the Potterverse, charms are cool and all, but not really for me. Even though the munchkin inside me wants the reality-altering charms of Harry Potter. Maybe next time.

Maybe a sword technique? It is extremely reasonable of me to buy a sword technique due to me being a budding swordsman, it's not like I want to buy one just to show it off to beidou. Pfft.

I wonder…

All the previous times I used never no money, it was by intent. What happens if I create an audio illusion filled with my intent to use it? Will it work or will it not?

Oh well, only one way to find out.

{“Never No Money: a suitable sword technique”}

The money on my table glowed, losing its conceptual value, the golden glow left and took the form of a scroll which I caught telekinetically before it fell on the floor.

Pulling the scroll towards me, I read the title of the sword technique.

Inverted scale sword technique.

I raise my eyebrow at it. It sounds strong. Hell, it sounds like something that should belong to some xianxia protagonist.

I unfurl the scroll and read it. The more I read it the more dumbfounded I became.

There are three skills in the inverted scale sword technique.

« Dragon Dance Form », the sword like the dragon dancing, myriad evils can’t invade the body! Dragon Dance Form simply becomes like a flying dragon. This sword comes out and can sweep away any attacks directed at the user.

« Dragon Scale Form », sword technique becomes dragon scale, protecting the weak body; turns qi into dragon scales that cover the user.

« Inverted Scale Form », is the strongest defense! Forms a scale-shaped shield in front of the user, protecting them from all attacks.

[Special note: if the user has either, sword qi, earth qi, dragon qi, shield qi, the power of the sword technique would be much greater than using normal qi. Especially with shield qi or dragon qi.]

This sword art is a defensive sword technique, and while I wanted something cool, this was quite amazing. If I could master this technique, combined with the already ridiculous defenses that my breathing technique gives me, then I might as well call myself the juggernaut.

I couldn't help it, I giggled like a schoolgirl who got asked out by her crush. My feet kicked the bed in happiness.

I exited my room, clothed in a white shirt with its sleeves rolled up to my elbows black pants, and brown shoes.

I walked down the stairs to the dining room. The aroma from the food reached my nose causing me to instinctively sniff the air.

Walking into the dining room, I saw that everyone except me had already arrived.

{“Sorry for being late.”} I apologized, my illusionary voice covering them all.

“It is no problem, you are only a few seconds later than beidou.” Ningguang replied, stirring a cup of tea with a spoon.

“At least unlike her, you don't come late every day.” keqing glared at beidou.

Beidou rubbed the back of her head and spoke, “H-hey! It's not my fault that I wake up slightly late.”

“Maybe you would wake up early if it wasn't for you always drinking an entire bottle before you sleep.”

I smiled slightly at the banter walked towards Yelan and took the empty seat next to her. Yelan was sipping a cup of tea, though just smelling the tea gave me a runny nose due to the insane ingredient she puts in it. Who puts chilies in tea? A crazy person that who.

Don't stick your dick in crazy, unless you are crazy yourself or she is crazy hot.

“A chili for your thoughts?”

{“You can keep your chillies far far away from me.”} I warned her, now, I am not some pathetic devil who can't handle spice, I like spice, but her chilies, which she grows herself, are not safe for consumption. No one should eat it.

“Yelan, please don't kill my son.”

“Please you guys are overreacting, it's not that spicy.” Yelan defended her abominations she calls food.

“If anyone truly learns about your homegrown chilies, they will make it illegal, globally.” Yan Fei advised her.

“How mean? Your words stab me, right here.” yelan poked her chest, causing her breasts to jiggle.

With our pre-breakfast banter out of the way, we started digging in.

Silently eating our breakfast, I savored each bite of it. Even though it has been a month since my surprise adoption, the taste of food is still as good as the first day I ate it.

I stared at keqing, her smile - which was beautiful - as she ate the blasphemous food. I am a devil, a species born out of rebellion and the physical manifestation of blasphemy, yet keqing has committed more blasphemy than all devils combined.

She is eating…shrimp! How can she even stomach that, just smelling it makes me want to barf. She should be thankful that I am even friends with someone like her. If it were anyone else, their names would be on my permanent enemies list.

…

Yeah enough exaggerating. While I do hate seafood, I don't hate it enough to start disliking people who enjoy them.

We continued eating. After eating the maids and butlers took away our empty plates and refilled our glasses with our preferred beverage.

I chose green tea, I mean if I had full control over my choices I would have chosen coffee but unfortunately, they don't let me drink it. Which is ludicrous, we are devils, I could drink cobra venom and still only experience stomach aches but coffee is bad for me?

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Ninggunag tapped the table with her clawed fingers, which from my observation, is something she does whenever she has something important to tell.

“Lucrecio, how are your etiquette lessons coming along?” ningguang asked, her red eyes staring at me and her lips curling into a slight smile.

{“Pretty good. Why?”}

“There is a party we need to attend,” she informed me, though I wish she didn't.

{“Whose?”}

“Sona sitri.”

My brain froze for a few seconds, Sona sitri? One of the two future owners of Kuoh town, king of this generation black dragon king, who if my memory served correctly, gained all the viritra sacred gears.

{“sona sitri?”} This is the first time I heard the name of a member of the canon cast. I always wanted to search for them, but I didn't since I have been far too busy.

“Yes.” ningguang took the cup in front of it and took slow sips of her tea, “Sona Sitri, younger sister of Serafall Leviathan and the heiress to the house of Sitri. Next month it would be her 4th birthday. All the devil houses are invited for it. I think it's the perfect event for your debut for devil society.”

{“Umm, can't we postpone it?”} I asked.

“Don't worry kid, if someone talks shit, just beat the shit out of them.” Beidou gave me helpful advice. After all, this is a devil party not a one for humans, so it is vastly different from normal ones.

Oh yeah, while beating someone up would be bad for humans, but devils, well it is mostly okay as long as you follow proper dueling etiquette. Which is to fight where everyone sees you.

Honestly, I am not ready. Ideally, if it were up to me I would not attend that until I am at least an ultimate class devil, which would mean I would not have to worry about stepping on the wrong foot of some young master. Especially the phenex house. The phenex house is an enemy of the morax house, or rather, the current head of the Phenex pillar is still salty since Mom rejected being part of his harem.

Yeah, so as you can imagine, mother hates his guts, and would always be scheming on ways to ruin them - without it being traced back to her - though from what she told me it is quite difficult, since the phenex house, due to their monopoly of phenex tears which could be easily produced, has some pretty good connections with both the new and old satan factions.

Yeah, the phenex house was neutral during the war, assisting both old and new Satans, normally, according to Mother, a neutral house such as theirs would be destroyed by Zekram Bael, but due to the sheer value of their phoenix tears he didn't do anything for them being not part of his faction.

“Beidou is right, you don't have to worry, much. I wish if you don't pick fights, but even if you do, make sure you either win or end it in a draw.” ningguang added.

“Oh yeah, brat, I will teach you something for when the phenex’s pick a fight. Come to the training ground in two hours.” beidou told me, I wonder what she will teach me that it is especially good for fighting a phoenix.

{“when? Shouldn't it be if?”}

“Hah! Like hell they would let you leave without even insulting you. I bet my stash of alcohol that the third son, i -forgot-his-name-but-i-am-sure-its-something-stupid will insult you in some way.” bediou said, with a grin.

“I'll double that bet, and put 1 million liliums for it.” yelan hearing the word bet, perked up and added her own to it.

“Stupid.” keqing said as she looked at both yelan and beidou.

“You do know that a bet only works if you both bet on opposing things.” Yan Fei advised them.

“Hmm. that is a good idea. I bet that the second spare tire will insult your muteness. I bet my original signed copy of Argonautial Medicines signed by Asclepius himself on it.” Natasha added with the confidence of a woman who was assured of her victory, betting something that would make any healer or doctor sell their souls for a mere bet.

“I bet my copy of ancient laws written by Athena.” Yan Fei, probably not wanting to lose to them, also bet something equally ridiculous

“Hmm, I do not wish to part with anything of value, so I will bet a million liliums.” keqing betted on an amount that would make a normal low and even mid-class devils faint.

“Same as a kitty cat, I will also bet a million liliums.” yelan betted the same as keqing.

“How boring. If you want to bet, you need to make it more challenging! I bet that the phenex will…insult Ningning, so to get a rise out of the kid. If he doesn't do that, I will eat cold food and give up drinking for a month!” beidou raised the bars of bet, going from betting on valuable things to doing some things she heavily disliked.

“Hmm. if you all are doing it, I would also need to do it as well, I bet the same as beidou, and if by chance I am wrong, then I would…hmm.” ninggunag stopped, her brows scrunched as she tapped her finger on her chin, thinking. “I do not have something, money will be too boring to bet.”

“diamond truffle and siren caviar soup. Maybe even some celestial mushrooms for some flavors.” yelan had a smirk on her face as she recommended a dish that would bankrupt most people.

Niggunag blinked. Rapidly in disbelief, “That would cost at least 100 million liliums just for ingredients, not to mention the amount that would be charged to cook it.”

“Exactly. You could not do it.”

“Fine. I will bet that I would eat that extremely wasteful food that you recommended as long as you do something as equally as bad as that.”

“How about yelan gives up eating spicy food and switches to sweet? Instead of putting chilies in her food, they will instead put sugar.” keqing “helpfully” recommended. An evil smirk plastered on her face.

“W-what!?” yelan recoiled as if she was asked to kill herself. But seeing keqing’s smirk, she accepted it. “Fine! I will, as long as you…auction your limited edition Rex lapis figurine!”

Keqing’s eyes widened with horror. She stammered but finally accepted.

…

I watched the conversation with interest.

Beidou and ningguang betted that riser phenex will insult ningguang to piss me off.

Keqing and Yan fei betted that he would insult me about why I have not appeared in public.

Natasha betted that he would insult my muteness.

They all bet on different things, if they were wrong all of them would have to do something they would not like.

Ningguang would have to waste money on really expensive food, like really expensive. Also according to what I know, she hates caviar, calling it a waste of money. Not only does she have little interest in food, but she detests expensive dishes. My adopted mother sees no point in throwing money away on expensive dishes or any other dish that costs more than normal. She would rather people give her money than try to buy her a nice meal as it's nothing but a waste. Most people would be surprised, sure she may not be the richest devil - yet - but she is rich enough that hundreds of millions of liliums seem like change for her. Yet she doesn't like expensive food, which in its own way is pretty admirable and makes me respect her more.

Beidou has to eat cold food. Beidou may seem like she is not picky, but she doesn't like to eat cold food. She prefers all of her meals to be warm and would rather warm up some leftover food than eat cold; it also means she doesn't like things like ice cream, which is surprisingly not a crime.

Yelan has to replace spicy food with sweet ones. Yelan after all hates sweets, saying that they are easily addictive and disrupt her focus and also a million other reasons why she doesn't like sweets. I think that she has eaten so much spice that any food with sweets is like poison to her.

Yan Fei has to eat cold tofu alongside beidou.

Keqing has to wear a hanfu, a traditional Chinese dress.

Natasha on the other hand didn't change her bet.

If riser phenex was unable to see or speak to me, they would all lose. Which means, they would all have to-

(“I bet that none of you will be right.”} I interrupted the conversation between keqing and yelan, causing all of them to look at me with curiosity.

“Oh really? What do you bet?” yelan asked challengingly, a smirk pasted on her face. I’m pretty sure if I let her she would “recommend” something Satan-awful.

{“My dignity. I would wear that damned costume you brought if I lose the bet.”} I replied to her challenge mirroring her smirk with my own.

“Ho ho ho! You are on!”

…

“Pfft.”

We all laughed. Moments like these make me feel glad I said yes to the surprise adoption, sure I may have lost most of my freedom that I had while I was living alone, but that is a worthwhile trade since the comfort and…family I received are more than enough to make up for my lost freedom.

…

How unfortunate, I am definitely going to win! After all, the basis of their bet lies in the fact that Riser talks to me, if I were to make him absent from the party…none of them would win.

-the end

Sorry for the late chapter, I had writer's block and also lost myself while playing Kenshin. I was clearing out some world quests I accepted but didn't do, which there were dozens of.

Natasha is a pain in the ass to write, since unlike genshin characters her personality is not as easy since she doesn't say what she likes or dislikes. I regret adding her. But I'll power my way through since I am awesome like that.

This chapter was the 4th draft, the first draft was that they would go straight into the party, the second one was that the MC would unlock his sword qi, the third was that yelan discovered MC using his ability never no money.

A few more chapters and I would end the first volume with a bang.

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